National Populism in Slovakia – new publication by IVO
Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) has released a new publication National Populism in Slovakia. The working paper is a key output of the project National Populism vs. Inter-Cultural Dialog in Slovakia: Political Factors and Values supported by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung (Germany). The authors – IVO experts Grigorij Mesežnikov and Oľga Gyárfášová - analyze political and socio-cultural aspects of national populist politics in Slovakia.
The study focuses on parties of the ruling coalition which often use appeals based on combination of populist mobilization and nationalism. Publication analyzes authentic statements of SNS, Smer-SD and ĽS-HZDS representatives in different context – in the debates about the character of the state and interpretation of national history, debates about ethnic minorities, including relations toward Hungarian and Roma minorities as well as political representation of the Hungarian minority. The sociological part of the study deals with recent trend in public opinion, identity politics, values and views on broad variety of relevant topics (e.g. Slovak–Hungarian relations) and the civic participation.
The main objective of the project is to identify possible ways of diminishing the efficiency of populist strategies, neutralization of populist appeals, elaboration of the adequate response against populist nationalist illiberal politics and strengthening the elements of inter-cultural dialog in Slovak society.
The study focuses on parties of the ruling coalition which often use appeals based on combination of populist mobilization and nationalism. Publication analyzes authentic statements of SNS, Smer-SD and ĽS-HZDS representatives in different context – in the debates about the character of the state and interpretation of national history, debates about ethnic minorities, including relations toward Hungarian and Roma minorities as well as political representation of the Hungarian minority. The sociological part of the study deals with recent trend in public opinion, identity politics, values and views on broad variety of relevant topics (e.g. Slovak–Hungarian relations) and the civic participation. 
